A Day In The Life Of A Farmer

Who am I?

My name is Oliver Edwards and I live at Westermill Farm Exford, in the heart of Exmoor. I am 55 years old I am born and bred an Exmoor man. I farm here with my Jill and our 3 children - James 25, Lottie 22 and David 21. David is the one interested in the farm and is currently doing a degree in Agricultural at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester.

Jill and I work as a team. I help her and she helps me - we are not just husband and wife, but best friends, I think rare these days considering we work together the whole time!

Type of Farm

We farm 500 acres here at Westermill and another 75 acres away from the main holding, which we bought 5 years ago. The farm goes from 900ft - 1400ft and has the river Exe running through it.

We farm Aberdeen Angus cattle and have a herd of around 80 suckler cows, which calve in March & April. The calves are then sold in the autumn and go to some else to grow further before ending up in Waitrose. I keep some females back for breed replacements as we are a closed herd. I also keep some bulls back as well.
We also run a sheep flock and lamb at Easter, about 200 ewes.

As we are a family we do not employ any body full time, but get people in to help with the sheep shearing and baling hay.

As the farm only covers it's costs we can't make a living from it so we have diversified in to running a camp site and 6 purpose built self catering cottages. My mother and father started this and we have now grown it into a major business.

What we do

I usually wake around 5 am, turn the radio on and listen to the shipping forecast, funny being on land and doing that, but we are very much governed by what happens out at sea and being close to the Bristol Channel, most of the weather comes from there.

I make a pot of tea and take one up to Jill. I think I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have not taken her a mug of tea in the 29 years we have been married! Then I listen to prayer for the day before the farming program. I also try to listen to what is ‘news’

The seasons determine what we do on a day-to-day basis. November to Feb we are really into the winter routine of feeding stock. Most of the cows are housed at this time so they need feeding, bedding up and cleaning out. I then come in for breakfast around 8.30 - 9.00, do any emails and phone calls before deciding what to do for the rest to the day. Again this really depends on the weather - Indoors or out. Fencing and hedge laying plus general farm maintenance and loads of office work to do as well. So do that.

The cows calve in March and April and this takes up most of the day and night some times making sure mum and baby are ok. Then hot on the heels of calving comes lambing in April - so very busy again all hours.

In May the cows and calves are out so they just need checking each day. Maybe move them to a fresh field. Check the sheep. Then in to breakfast. Check emails and then help with the cottages and the campsite, mowing and general work around the place.

June July - Shearing the sheep when the weather is nice. Cutting the grass haylage and wrapping it up ready for the cattle and sheep in the winter. Stock work. Grass cutting the campsite. Emails. Shop. You name it - I do it! I’m really a general dogs body. But people are on holiday here and if the weather is nice, and funny enough most of the time I am working, I feel I am on holiday as we have so many people come and stay that are regulars that it make me feel am on holiday too.

What I like most and what keeps me going

Do you know I look forward to - tomorrow. I go to bed and think about tomorrow. I can't wait. I enjoy every minute of the day. Ok you have difficult things to do and some things are not pleasant like when a lamb dies, but all in all. I LOVE IT.

Most evenings I stop for tea, in the wintertime, it's dark so I stop then. I may do some work in the office or watch TV. Catch up on what's happening on Eastenders which I have missed for 6 months in the summer. Normally we work late up to about 10pm.

Hours don't really worry me. If it needs to be done then we just get on with it. However long it takes.

I love calving and lambing. All the hard work, all the breeding - and there's the calf or the lamb. Wow. Fantastic. Then the sad part - a dead calf or lamb. Oh dear very upsetting. What waste. Not really the money side of things but just demoralising!

Autumn is a busy season as well. All the lambs are weaned now. May take some to market and then there are the calves to sell.

Oh no, the dreaded TB test before I can move the calves. All cattle have to be pre-movement tested before they can be transported off the farm.

I hate this. Will they pass? So we get all the calves into the yard and the vet comes and injects them. We turn them out and get them back in 2 days later.

We then run them through the handling race again to see if any have reacted. As they come through, so far so good but I never get my hopes up until the last one has been checked because as fate always has it, it will be the last one. All clear – yippee I can sell some calves; get some money into pay for the haymaking, straw for bedding in the winter. Oh happy day.

Or, I could have a calf that reacts to the test and that is my worst nightmare. How do I house all the cows and calves for the next 3 months? How do I pay for the feed? Straw? This is a very difficult time and what I hate most about the bureaucratic system we are in.

Enough of that now.

What I like and what keeps me going

I love Exmoor. I love the Farm and try to look after it for the next generation like my father and grandfather did. I have travelled around the world but always love to come back to the farm, to Exmoor as this is my special place.

I have a thing about Sunday evenings. I dislike them but its getting better now probably because I went away to boarding school at the age of 7 and hated it! It was in the days when dyslexia was not heard of and so being very bad at schoolwork they thought I was thick. So school was not a nice place to be - funny how things stay with you over the years. The advent of the computer is fantastic - how lucky we are to have this brilliant technology. It means I can type letters and not write them. Delete is the best button and spell check.

I just love having people come and enjoy our farm who respect that it’s a working and living environment. Look after it when you are here and enjoy it. The peace and quiet. I think most visitors who come here think the same.